Pod Insights Stuff You Should Know SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Hot Wheels Work About this episode If you're an American who had a childhood, you probably have some nostalgia for Hot Wheels. Get your engines revved for this trip down memory lane as we discuss these fun and iconic toys.
See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
0:04 Josh Clark? Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota Ford ability, and it starts with a great deal on an off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's longest-lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures, and style in between. And they're built on a reputation for quality and reliability, which is why Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.
0:35 Speaker 02 If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering, so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.
1:07 Speaker 03 Hey, everybody. Chuck here for another one of our Christmas-centric episodes with our 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist. And today, I'm very pleased to introduce to you an episode that I liked quite a bit because when I was a kid, I loved me some Hot Wheels. And so this is that episode, How Hot Wheels Work. Pretty interesting story. Hope you guys enjoy it.
1:30 Speaker 04 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com.
1:40 Josh Clark? Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W., Chuck Bryant, and Jerry.
1:45 Speaker 03 You know, that just sounded like, like, that's what happens. Like, you're having a nightmare, and Yumi wakes you up in the middle of the night, and you just go, hey, welcome to the podcast. And then she slaps you across the face real hard.
1:57 Josh Clark? That's true.
1:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:59 Josh Clark? That is what that sounded like.
2:00 Speaker 03 That's what it sounded like.
2:01 Josh Clark? It's pretty accurate. I don't know what got into me.
2:06 Speaker 03 Uh, you were just supercharged about this topic.
2:09 Josh Clark? Ah, that's terrible.
2:11 Speaker 03 What?
2:11 Josh Clark? Supercharged?
2:13 Speaker 03 I don't get it.
2:13 Josh Clark? It's like a supercharged engine?
2:15 Speaker 03 Oh, I didn't even think about that.
2:17 Josh Clark? Oh, good. Well, that makes me feel a little better.
2:19 Speaker 03 Yeah.
2:19 Josh Clark? Um.
2:20 Speaker 03 You know, Jerry, by the way, before, when I told her what we were doing, said, "Oh, my gosh, that was my favorite toy when I was a kid."
2:26 Josh Clark? Nice. Hot Wheels are pretty great.
2:27 Speaker 03 Yeah, I had quite a collection, and I don't know where they are today.
2:31 Josh Clark? Oh, really?
2:32 Speaker 03 Nope.
2:32 Josh Clark? They're missing, huh?
2:33 Speaker 03 Yeah, I don't know if they were thrown out, or if, uh, if, uh,
2:39 Speaker 03 my brother has them, or they're in my mom's attic, or what, because I'm kind of curious if I have any valuable ones.
2:43 Josh Clark? Yeah, you need to find them.
2:44 Speaker 03 Yeah.
2:45 Josh Clark? They could be, apparently, as far as Hot Wheels collectors go, they could be in mint condition, all the way down to beater condition.
2:52 Speaker 03 Oh, is that how they rank them?
2:53 Josh Clark? Yeah.
2:54 Speaker 03 Uh, mine would be beaters, because I played with them like crazy.
2:56 Josh Clark? That's good. I mean, that's what they're for.
2:58 Speaker 03 Sure.
2:59 Josh Clark? You know? And there's value for a beater, too. Like, some people apparently harvest them for parts, to rebuild, like, a, you know, a new Frankenstein model.
3:09 Speaker 03 Oh, really?
3:10 Josh Clark? Yeah.
3:11 Speaker 03 That's pretty neat.
3:11 Josh Clark? There's a lot of stuff you can do with them.
3:13 Speaker 03 Yeah, and we should thank the fifth grader who wrote this article, too.
3:17 Josh Clark? Sad face.
3:18 Speaker 03 I complained about that out loud to Holly. I was like, "This article actually says sad face." Like, as a sentence.
3:25 Josh Clark? Yeah. I know.
3:27 Speaker 03 I had issues.
3:29 Josh Clark? I'm glad you said something.
3:31 Speaker 03 Yeah. What if it was a fifth grader? Her feelings are all hurt.
3:35 Josh Clark? I think her feelings are hurt either way now. Sad face.
3:40 Josh Clark? So, uh, we're talking about Hot Wheels today. I had a couple. My favorite toy was G.I. Joe, but I appreciated Hot Wheels.
3:49 Speaker 03 Yeah, I had G.I. Joe, too.
3:50 Josh Clark? We should do a G.I. Joe episode sometime.
3:52 Speaker 03 I had the older ones, though. You probably had the-
3:53 Josh Clark? The huge ones?
3:54 Speaker 03 Yeah.
3:55 Josh Clark? Yeah. No, I had the real ones.
3:56 Speaker 03 Yeah. Oh.
3:58 Josh Clark? Yeah.
3:59 Speaker 03 I don't, that's fighting words.
4:00 Josh Clark? Man, the ones that I had were so awesome. They were like, there was a huge, vast collection of all of them. There was like Cobra. Cobra didn't exist when you were collecting G.I. Joes.
4:11 Speaker 03 No, but how could you say, like, "Oh, that one that's 10 inches tall and has real clothes and-" And fuzzy hair and the Kung-Fu grip is inferior to this little plastic thing.
4:22 Josh Clark? I think you just said it all. Fuzzy hair says it right there. I don't really mean that Chuck. I don't have a dog in that fight. Like if you like the big G.I. Joes, that's cool. I got no problem.
4:35 Speaker 03 Yeah, as a quick side note, I have to tell this story.
4:39 Josh Clark? Okay.
4:39 Speaker 03 When, you know how you used to do book reports and you would have to have a visual aid?
4:43 Josh Clark? Yeah.
4:44 Speaker 03 I might have told this before. If I do, I apologize.
4:47 Josh Clark? I don't recognize it.
4:48 Speaker 03 I did a report on Franco Harris when in a Munchy school because he was a-
4:53 Josh Clark? The football player?
4:54 Speaker 03 Yeah.
4:56 Speaker 03 I don't know why I did it on Franco Harris.
4:57 Josh Clark? Yeah.
4:58 Speaker 03 But I got my mom to make me a little Pittsburgh Steelers uniform for my G.I. Joe because he looked like Franco Harris.
5:03 Josh Clark? Nice.
5:04 Speaker 03 Yeah, and that was my visual aid.
5:05 Josh Clark? Do you still have it?
5:06 Speaker 03 No, of course not. We had the G.I. Joes, but I think the Steelers uniform has gone bye-bye.
5:12 Josh Clark? That's sad.
5:13 Speaker 03 Yeah.
5:13 Josh Clark? You know, I'm sure your mom put a lot of work into that.
5:16 Speaker 03 No, I feel guilty.
5:19 Josh Clark? So Chuck, I have a question for you.
5:21 Speaker 03 Yes.
5:22 Josh Clark? Did you know that the number one vehicle manufacturer on the planet is in fact Hot Wheels?
5:28 Speaker 03 I did.
5:29 Josh Clark? It kind of, it's astounding until you stop and think about it.
5:33 Speaker 03 Sure.
5:34 Josh Clark? Like apparently since 1968, when Hot Wheels were first introduced, more than four billion Hot Wheels have been produced. That's more than the big four Detroit automakers combined. You're like, wow. And then you think, oh yeah, it costs a minute fraction of the cost-
5:52 Speaker 03 Sure.
5:52 Josh Clark? To build a Hot Wheels than it does a normal car.
5:56 Speaker 03 Yeah.
5:57 Josh Clark? Plus also, it's not like you're gonna go, I want this Buick Cutlass Supreme in every color it comes in.
6:05 Speaker 03 Right.
6:06 Josh Clark? You know, with the Hot Wheels, you can do that.
6:08 Speaker 03 Yeah, what's, the Lego stat is they're the biggest manufacturer of tires?
6:12 Josh Clark? Yeah, they're, yeah.
6:13 Speaker 03 I wonder though, do these not count as tires because they're plastic? Do they count as wheels?
6:19 Josh Clark? I don't know, man.
6:20 Speaker 03 Because four billion times four, that's 16 billion tires.
6:24 Josh Clark? That's a really great question.
6:26 Speaker 03 I might have to challenge Lego, or maybe just look up how many tires they manufacture.
6:30 Josh Clark? Ol Kirk Christiansen is not going to be happy about this.
6:33 Speaker 03 Who was that?
6:34 Josh Clark? The founder of Lego.
6:35 Speaker 03 Oh.
6:36 Josh Clark? Remember Ol?
6:37 Speaker 03 Oh yeah, that's right. I thought you were saying old.
6:40 Josh Clark? No.
6:40 Speaker 03 Yeah, I remember Ol. Yeah.
6:42 Josh Clark? So, um- Let's talk about the history of this stuff, huh?
6:46 Speaker 03 Okay.
6:47 Josh Clark? So Hot Wheels, like I said, have been around since 1968. And anybody who's heard the Barbie trademark podcast will recognize the name Elliot Handler. That's Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie trademarks, husband.
7:01 Speaker 03 Sure.
7:01 Josh Clark? Um, and Elliot apparently saw a real chance to muscle in on an already extant market by a company called Tyco. That had a line of miniature metal cars, die cast cars is what they're called.
7:19 Speaker 03 Yeah.
7:19 Josh Clark? Called Matchbox Cars.
7:20 Speaker 03 That's right.
7:21 Josh Clark? By the time Hot Wheels came around, Matchbox was already there and had established a market. And Mattel said, let's get in on that.
7:29 Speaker 03 Yeah, and the rumor is that, uh, he saw his grandchildren playing with them and said, uh, they kind of stink. I can make these better.
7:37 Josh Clark? Yeah.
7:37 Speaker 03 Cooler.
7:38 Josh Clark? Right.
7:38 Speaker 03 And he had a, um, as the story goes, had a designer, um, which we'll talk about in a second, called Harry Bradley.
7:44 Josh Clark? Sure.
7:45 Speaker 03 And he had a hot rod and Elliot was in the parking lot one day and said, man, those are some hot wheels you got there.
7:52 Josh Clark? And, and apparently if you go s- look, look at the old, original commercials for Hot Wheels.
7:57 Speaker 03 Did they say that?
7:58 Josh Clark? That's how, well, that's how they pronounce it. Hot Wheels.
8:00 Speaker 03 Oh, instead of Hot Wheels?
8:02 Josh Clark? Yeah. The emphasis is on the hot. It sounds awkward. They're like, race your hot wheels.
8:09 Speaker 03 But it makes sense though.
8:10 Josh Clark? You can race them. Just go buy some hot wheels. That's what they, that's how they say it. Collect all your hot wheels.
8:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, but that makes more sense in the context of a sentence.
8:21 Josh Clark? It does, but having been raised.
8:23 Speaker 03 Right, right.
8:24 Josh Clark? You know, post.
8:26 Speaker 03 The emphasis is wrong.
8:27 Josh Clark? Yeah. Hot wheels. Hot wheels.
8:30 Speaker 03 Now I'm trying to picture the guy in the parking lot saying, those are some hot wheels you got on your, there. You'd say, hot wheels you got there. You know?
8:39 Josh Clark? Yeah.
8:40 Speaker 03 Oh, boy. We can sure waste some time.
8:43 Josh Clark? We sure can.
8:44 Speaker 03 Uh, but the first, uh, nineteen sixty-eight is, like you said, when the first line came out of sixteen Hot Wheels. They were sold initially for fifty-nine cent apiece.
8:56 Josh Clark? Yeah, um, and like you said, the guy whose car originally inspired the name Hot Wheels, was Harry Bradley, and he was the designer of that first sixteen cars. They were also called, California Customs Miniatures, was that first original sixteen group of Hot Wheels, that were released in nineteen sixty-eight. So, and Harry Bradley designed them all, including, apparently, he got his hands on, um, the first one, by the way, that came out was a Chevy Camaro.
9:27 Speaker 03 Of course.
9:27 Josh Clark? The second one that came out was the Chevy Corvette.
9:30 Speaker 03 Of course.
9:30 Josh Clark? And apparently, the Chevy Corvette came out before the actual Corvette came out.
9:36 Speaker 03 Yeah, the sixty-nine Corvette, that is.
9:38 Josh Clark? So, Harry Bradley was an old hand in not just miniature car design, but car design in general. He was an old GM designer. And I guess he had connections still at GM, and probably, under the table, in a possibly illegal way, got his hands on the blueprints for the Corvette that hadn't been released yet, and Hot Wheels beat GM to the punch in releasing the nineteen sixty-eight Corvette.
10:03 Speaker 03 Yeah, sixty-nine.
10:05 Josh Clark? Thank you.
10:05 Speaker 03 That's all right. The, uh, yeah, as the lore goes, he supposedly knew that the cafeteria door was unlocked, so he snuck in, uh, through the cafeteria door, but.
10:14 Josh Clark? That's called industrial espionage.
10:16 Speaker 03 Yeah, that sounds like a story, like, just lore.
10:19 Josh Clark? Okay.
10:20 Speaker 03 But maybe so. Maybe he committed industrial espionage.
10:23 Josh Clark? Yeah.
10:25 Speaker 03 So, like you said, the, the, those were the two of the first sixteen in that original lineup, uh, that original collection, which, if you have any of those.
10:36 Josh Clark? Yeah, you're doing okay.
10:37 Speaker 03 Yeah, you got some money that you're sitting on.
10:39 Josh Clark? Cause I mean, like, they went all out on those, that original line.
10:43 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
10:44 Josh Clark? Like, there were bushings to the suspension.
10:46 Speaker 03 Yeah.
10:47 Josh Clark? Uh, um, and the, I mean, the chassis, um, it had suspension, like shocks. Like, you could press them down and it would bounce back.
10:54 Speaker 03 I had some of those. I don't know, think they were from sixty-eight, but. When did they quit making those? It said up until uh?
11:01 Josh Clark? Seventy-seven was when they stopped making the um.
11:04 Speaker 03 Oh no, seventy is when the suspension got an overhaul.
11:07 Josh Clark? Okay, so for the first couple of years, like they were really putting a lot into these things. Um, the tires were redline racing slicks.
11:16 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:17 Josh Clark? Um, and the things, the, the whole reason they went to so much trouble is because they really wanted to destroy their competitor matchbox. And one of the ways they did that was by making these things far more functional um than the matchboxes were. The matchbox cars were, so they, they really could race.
11:37 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:37 Josh Clark? And if you put a matchbox car up against a comparable Hot Wheels, say the same model car.
11:42 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:43 Josh Clark? Um, the Hot Wheels will destroy it every time in the head-to-head race.
11:47 Speaker 03 As we saw on the internet.
11:49 Josh Clark? Yeah.
11:49 Speaker 03 A guy did that, of course. Uh, he took a, two Volkswagens and two Audi eights, I think.
11:54 Josh Clark? Uh huh.
11:54 Speaker 03 And uh, one matchbox and one Hot Wheel and he said they won by at least a car length uh every time he tried.
12:01 Josh Clark? Right.
12:01 Speaker 03 And this was no loop-de-loop or anything, it was just the straight race.
12:05 Josh Clark? Right.
12:05 Speaker 03 Um, they painted them originally in Spectra Flame, which was very shiny and sparkly and expensive. Um, and I don't think we said that all Hot Wheels are built at one-sixty-fourth scale.
12:17 Josh Clark? Yeah, that's a big point.
12:18 Speaker 03 But not necessarily all matchbox cars. They kind of vary here and there.
12:22 Josh Clark? Right.
12:23 Speaker 03 Um, but like you said, uh, that Spectra Flame and the redline tires uh didn't, only lasted till seventy-seven. And the suspension only lasted till nineteen seventy and they, sadly, a lot of that had to do with the fact that they moved them from Hawthorne, California to Hong Kong.
12:41 Josh Clark? Yeah.
12:41 Speaker 03 And uh, like any product, you're like, hey, you can make it for half as much if you make it in China. So let's move, let's ship the operations overseas.
12:50 Josh Clark? Well, not only that, it's the Spectra Flame paint is pretty expensive. It's awesome. It looks great.
12:55 Speaker 03 Yeah.
12:56 Josh Clark? But it's pretty expensive. So um, with, with any collector's item, as they started to downgrade the components and the parts and the, the manufacturing.
13:06 Speaker 03 Yeah.
13:06 Josh Clark? And ultimately the final product. All that did was make the original stuff all the more valuable today.
13:12 Speaker 03 Yeah, they had like-
13:13 Josh Clark? Because there's fewer and fewer of them as the years go on, proportionately speaking.
13:17 Speaker 03 Yeah, they had actual axles, like, you know, it was like a real, they were designed by car designers. Uh, and they were made apparently to reach 200 scale miles per hour.
13:26 Josh Clark? Yeah, that's pretty cool.
13:27 Speaker 03 That's way cool.
13:28 Josh Clark? Yeah, remember like, uh, in the cockroach episode, we talked about how they're the fastest animal on the planet, relatively speaking?
13:35 Speaker 03 Uh huh.
13:35 Josh Clark? Pretty neat stuff.
13:36 Speaker 03 Yeah.
13:37 Josh Clark? Um, so Chuck, right out of the gate, Mattel had a hit on its hands.
13:42 Speaker 03 Oh, yes.
13:43 Josh Clark? Um, they released them in 1968. By 1970, Hot Wheels was a Saturday morning cartoon.
13:50 Speaker 03 Yeah.
13:50 Josh Clark? In the vein of like Dune Buggy and Scooby Doo and all those guys, Hanna-Barbera.
13:54 Speaker 03 Dune Buggy?
13:56 Josh Clark? Or Speed Buggy.
13:56 Speaker 03 Speed Buggy?
13:57 Josh Clark? Yeah. Remember Speed Buggy?
13:59 Speaker 03 Uh uh.
13:59 Josh Clark? Yeah, it was like a, a Dune Buggy that could talk and it was basically-
14:05 Speaker 03 Wonderbug?
14:06 Josh Clark? No, it's Speed Buggy.
14:07 Speaker 03 Oh, okay.
14:08 Josh Clark? Um, there was like-
14:09 Speaker 03 Cause there was Wonderbug too.
14:09 Josh Clark? If you took Shaggy and put some like racing goggles on him.
14:12 Speaker 03 Yeah.
14:13 Josh Clark? And then turned Scooby Doo into a speed, a, a Dune Buggy.
14:16 Speaker 03 Yeah.
14:17 Josh Clark? That's Speed Buggy.
14:18 Speaker 03 Oh, was that a cartoon?
14:19 Josh Clark? Yeah.
14:19 Speaker 03 Okay, Wonder-
14:20 Josh Clark? They went around solving mysteries and stuff like that.
14:22 Speaker 03 Yeah, Wonderbug was, uh, I think that was live action.
14:25 Josh Clark? Oh, this was a cartoon?
14:26 Speaker 03 Sid and Marty Croft.
14:27 Josh Clark? This is exactly like Scooby Doo by the people who did Scooby Doo, using the same people who did the voices for Scooby Doo. It, it just vaguely changed the characters. Hot Wheels was virtually the same thing, except it was about racing clubs. There were the bad guys and the good guys and-
14:44 Speaker 03 Do you know what this proves?
14:45 Josh Clark? What?
14:45 Speaker 03 Is the 1970s, the Dune Buggy was a very popular thing.
14:48 Josh Clark? Mm-hmm.
14:49 Speaker 03 Remember seeing those on the road?
14:50 Josh Clark? Mm-hmm.
14:50 Speaker 03 Like, I used to see them all the time, not all the time, but in the seventies, it was a, a common thing.
14:55 Josh Clark? Yeah.
14:55 Speaker 03 You don't see them anymore.
14:56 Josh Clark? Hmm, very rarely.
14:58 Speaker 03 Nope. No Gremlins, no Yukos, no, no Wonderbugs.
15:01 Josh Clark? You know, I like Gremlins. Do you?
15:04 Speaker 03 Uh, they're okay.
15:05 Josh Clark? For me though, the coup de grace of car design is the AMC Pacer.
15:11 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:12 Josh Clark? It's like the Formica Kitchen of cars.
15:14 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:15 Josh Clark? It's- Beautiful in all the weirdest ways.
15:18 Speaker 03 So much window.
15:19 Josh Clark? That would be my sought after Hot Wheels. If I had a Hot Wheels that I, if I just could have one Hot Wheel.
15:25 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:26 Josh Clark? It would, I don't know if that would be it, but I'd be happy with that one.
15:30 Speaker 03 Now, do they have that as a Hot Wheel?
15:32 Josh Clark? Oh, yeah.
15:32 Speaker 03 Okay.
15:33 Josh Clark? I looked it up. And if you look up AMC Gremlin Hot Wheels.
15:36 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:37 Josh Clark? They went to town on those. They had some with like the, the intakes like sticking out of the hood and.
15:42 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:43 Josh Clark? Um, just all sorts of, just awesome different variations like Indy car Gremlins and stuff like that.
15:49 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:49 Josh Clark? Because, and that raises a pretty good point. Hot Wheels has always been about the, the racing design. Like they've designed them to look like racing cars, but they've also manufactured them to actually be able to win a race like we talked about with Matchbox.
16:03 Speaker 03 Yeah, and one of the differences, uh, that is one of the main differences between the Matchbox and the Hot Wheel is they were just much more interested in being sportier. Like you could get, you could get a Matchbox like a delivery truck.
16:16 Josh Clark? Right.
16:17 Speaker 03 You know, they, they had that, but the Matchboxes looked more real. They, they all were about looking realistic.
16:23 Josh Clark? Right.
16:24 Speaker 03 And not necessarily performance.
16:25 Josh Clark? Yeah.
16:26 Speaker 03 Um, and hey, if you want a bread truck, you can get a bread truck.
16:29 Josh Clark? Right, exactly.
16:30 Speaker 03 But you can't get a bread truck Hot Wheel.
16:31 Josh Clark? Right.
16:32 Speaker 03 You know?
16:32 Josh Clark? Uh, we'll talk more about all of this jam right after this.
16:48 Speaker 05 This mood check is brought to you by State Farm. Porque tu bienestar también merece protección. Que tal mi gente? Honey German checking in contigo. Take a second. Literalmente, un momentico para ti. How's your corazón feeling today? If it's a little tired, a little oof, you're not alone. Have you eaten algo rico? Taken a deep breath? Maybe even turned off your phone for cinco minutitos? I promise the memes will still be there. Sometimes self-care isn't candles and meditation. It's just saying no. It's drinking a little bit of agua. It's letting yourself rest sin pena. You don't have to prove anything today. Just be, breathe. Estas haciendo lo mejor que puedes. And yes, that's enough.
17:31 Speaker 05 Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
17:35 Speaker 06 Hello, hello. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. Imagine your business depends on a system you didn't build and don't fully control. For years, it works perfectly. It's fast, reliable, affordable. So over time, more and more of your operations rely on it. Then one day, the terms change. What once felt flexible now feels difficult to leave. Moving to another provider or bringing those capabilities back under your own control could take years, cost millions, and disrupt the business in the process. That's the challenge of digital sovereignty. Businesses today rely on all sorts of third-party systems: cloud platforms, data pipelines,
18:20 Speaker 06 AI models, software tools. Most days, these systems operate quietly in the background. But when something changes, like costs go up or rules shift, organizations are forced to confront how much control and flexibility they actually have. So to understand the challenge up close, I traveled to Paris to speak with IBM's Anapaula Assis and Axas CIO, Giovanni Daniele, two people who think about these questions every day. Hear the full conversation at ibm.com/smarttalks or wherever you get your podcasts.
19:08 Speaker 03 You want to go ahead and talk about some of the other differences between Matchbox and Hot Wheel?
19:12 Josh Clark? Yeah, sure.
19:12 Speaker 03 Since we're at it. Matchbox, or I'm sorry, Hot Wheel is the one that is more likely to have branded versions.
19:20 Josh Clark? Oh, man. And do they ever?
19:22 Speaker 03 Like the Ghostbusters' ectomobile.
19:24 Josh Clark? Right. Or even more than that, like they have a deal with Eminem Mars for 2015.
19:31 Speaker 03 Oh, they do.
19:32 Josh Clark? So they have like a Twix trucks and a Skittles van and like all this stuff. They have licensing with DC and Marvel this year.
19:40 Speaker 03 Fast and the Furious, I know they had a line.
19:42 Josh Clark? Yep. So they're really big time into branded. And a lot of times, they'll have like, a store will just have exclusives. Like access to an exclusive line of Skittles cars or something like that that you can only get at KB Toys.
19:58 Speaker 03 Yeah, I think they have a NASCAR deal too, if I'm not mistaken.
20:01 Josh Clark? I would not be surprised.
20:02 Speaker 03 Uh, and the Hot Wheels usually have a little bit wider, a longer axle and wider wheels. Because it's just cooler if that wheel sticks out from the body a little bit, you know?
20:13 Josh Clark? Well, plus also supposedly, and we'll talk about this a little more, when you shrink a car down to scale, it looks a little weird.
20:19 Speaker 03 Yeah, you might as well go ahead and bring that up.
20:21 Josh Clark? Okay.
20:22 Speaker 03 It looks weird. You can't just shrink it and have it in the same proportion and have it look normal.
20:27 Josh Clark? Right, like it'll be, as far as like shrinking a car down by scale, it will be in the exact same proportion, but it's just off a little bit like, so what they do to make a Hot Wheels raceable is they expand the wheel well, a little more.
20:45 Speaker 03 Yeah.
20:46 Josh Clark? They break it out a little bit.
20:47 Speaker 03 Yeah.
20:48 Josh Clark? Which is why the wheels stick out some on a, on a Hot Wheels, but not on a Matchbox.
20:52 Speaker 03 That's right.
20:53 Josh Clark? Because Matchboxes are all about realism. To heck with how it looks, as long as it's real.
20:57 Speaker 03 Uh, the, um, one of my favorite ones, and I had one of these, that they mentioned in this article was the Red Baron. The, the person who wrote this said it was an inexplicable, inexplicably cool helmet over the cockpit. Um, I don't know about inexplicable, it was just the roof of the car was a helmet.
21:16 Josh Clark? Right.
21:16 Speaker 03 Um, but I looked it up again today and I was like, oh yeah, I had that thing. But it was a, it wasn't a Nazi helmet per se, but it was that shape of the helmet.
21:27 Josh Clark? Right.
21:27 Speaker 03 Uh, like the US soldiers have that shape now, you know, where it's cut lower around the ears.
21:33 Josh Clark? Right.
21:33 Speaker 03 Instead of just a straight, you know, like the World War II helmet.
21:36 Josh Clark? Right.
21:37 Speaker 03 But the Nazis used those first, you know, because it's a better design for war. And it also had a, a black iron cross on the side of it.
21:45 Josh Clark? Well, hence the Red Baron, right?
21:46 Speaker 03 Yeah, but it was. It's easy now as an adult to look and say, hmm, that looks like a little Nazi hot rod.
21:52 Josh Clark? Yeah, but the Red Baron was World War I. He was pre-Nazi Germany.
21:55 Speaker 03 Yeah, and it was also, I think at the time, just like, looked like the biker gang.
22:00 Josh Clark? Sure.
22:00 Speaker 03 Would wear like those helmet with the iron cross.
22:03 Josh Clark? Yeah, and all of it was Southern California hot rod culture.
22:06 Speaker 03 Yeah, exactly.
22:07 Josh Clark? Is what gave rise to Hot Wheels, so it makes sense.
22:09 Speaker 03 Yeah, I don't, I don't think there was any like, uh, surreptitious intent.
22:13 Josh Clark? Yeah. Um, so, like I said, right out of the gate, Hot Wheels was a hit. They had a cartoon within a year or so of the first sixteen being released.
22:23 Speaker 03 Sure.
22:24 Josh Clark? Um, the second release, they had, I think, twenty-two new cars.
22:29 Speaker 03 Yeah, thirty-three total.
22:30 Josh Clark? And then, um, the third year, they, they had another, they released thirty-three after that, right?
22:36 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, thirty-three by nineteen seventy.
22:39 Josh Clark? So they did sixteen, twenty-four, and then thirty-three, and all of them came in like different colors, right? So like I said, if you had one, that didn't mean you had them all. You wanted to collect them all.
22:48 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:48 Josh Clark? So kids were going crazy for it. And another way that Mattel very wisely targeted children was to get in with fast food.
22:57 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:57 Josh Clark? Uh, in nineteen seventy, the first Hot Wheels came out as a toy at Jack in the Boxes.
23:03 Speaker 03 Oh, really?
23:04 Josh Clark? Yeah. The big one, though, the one that like put them over the top, was in nineteen eighty-three, when kids who were, uh, lucky enough to be taken to McDonald's for dinner.
23:16 Speaker 03 Happy Meal.
23:17 Josh Clark? And to get a, exactly.
23:19 Speaker 03 A Hot Wheel.
23:19 Josh Clark? Which is what they called them at the time, uh, where could get one of fourteen Hot Wheels.
23:25 Speaker 03 Yeah.
23:25 Josh Clark? In nineteen eighty-three. And they had some cool ones. They had a Chevy Citation.
23:30 Speaker 03 Did they really?
23:31 Josh Clark? Yeah. They had one that was one of my favorites, actually. It was a, um, Toyota Mini-Trek, which is a, like a station wagon camper. And it even said, painted on the side, "Good Time Camper", that you could get in your Happy Meal, which, if I could have one... Hot Wheel, it would probably be that.
23:50 Speaker 03 You know what they were doing, now that I look back through my adult eyes?
23:53 Josh Clark? Like snorting pot?
23:55 Speaker 03 No, they were giving you a bunch of crappy ones because you wanted to keep coming back to get the cool one.
24:02 Josh Clark? Yeah, probably.
24:03 Speaker 03 You're like, ah, I got a Citation. I'm like, can I go back? Cause I wanna get the Hot Rod.
24:07 Josh Clark? Right.
24:08 Speaker 03 That's exactly what they were doing.
24:09 Josh Clark? Sure.
24:10 Speaker 03 Man, I feel so like manipulated.
24:13 Josh Clark? What did you think they were doing with Happy Meals?
24:16 Speaker 03 Well, I mean, I know it was all manipulation to get you to try and own all of them.
24:19 Josh Clark? Right.
24:20 Speaker 03 But they should have been all cool ones, but you can't do that because the, the regular kid might be like, no, I got, I got the cool one. I'm fine. But if you get this, the Citation.
24:29 Josh Clark? Right.
24:29 Speaker 03 You feel jipped off and you really wanna go back and get one of the Hot Rods.
24:33 Josh Clark? Yeah.
24:34 Speaker 03 It, it's, my eyes are wide open, my friend.
24:37 Josh Clark? Well, that's why our friends down under in Australia have like outlawed marketing directly to children, which I think is a fantastic move.
24:45 Speaker 03 Oh, really?
24:45 Josh Clark? Yeah, that's so unfair to market directly to children. It's just, it almost literally is like taking candy from a baby.
24:54 Speaker 03 Right.
24:54 Josh Clark? Like kids aren't sophisticated enough to psychologically defend themselves from being like bombarded with,
25:01 Speaker 03 Yeah.
25:01 Josh Clark? by adults to say, go tell your parents to buy you this. You can't function correctly without this Trapper Keeper, so go get it.
25:10 Speaker 03 The Trapper Keeper?
25:11 Josh Clark? Yeah.
25:11 Speaker 03 What, uh, did they make a law?
25:13 Josh Clark? Yeah.
25:14 Speaker 03 Really?
25:15 Josh Clark? Yeah, it's a big one. Very progressive law.
25:17 Speaker 03 It's a big law.
25:18 Josh Clark? I think all countries should adopt.
25:20 Speaker 03 Um, well, in 1983, I agree wholeheartedly, by the way. In 1983 is when that Happy Meal thing happened and also the same year they moved from Hong Kong to Malaysia.
25:32 Speaker 03 And it, and it said that's when they added their economy cars. So that must've coincided with the Citation.
25:37 Josh Clark? Yeah, the Citation, man. One of the most disappointing Happy Meal toys you could possibly get.
25:43 Speaker 03 Yeah, because it reminded you of your dad who drove a Citation.
25:48 Josh Clark? Right, who was always mad.
25:50 Speaker 03 Yeah.
25:53 Speaker 03 Oh dear.
25:54 Josh Clark? So, uh, chuckers.
25:56 Speaker 03 Yes.
25:58 Josh Clark? After 1983, not a lot happened. Hot Wheels just kept going on, expanding more and more and more.
26:04 Speaker 03 Sure.
26:05 Josh Clark? Um, I think they had another Happy Meals joint in 91 or something like that.
26:11 Josh Clark? And, uh, in 1995, they said, we need to, we need to do something big. And they did. They released something called a Treasure Hunt series, which is a purposefully limited release car, a series of cars.
26:26 Speaker 03 Yeah.
26:26 Josh Clark? Um, I think they, they did, uh, 12 models at 10,000 each originally. And, and hence the name Treasure Hunt. They were hard to find.
26:36 Speaker 03 Yeah. And one of the cooler ones for me, uh, was the Oldsmobile 442.
26:40 Josh Clark? Yeah, that thing is neat.
26:41 Speaker 03 A dude at my, uh, church had a 442 and it was just awesome, man. He was, he had like the only muscle car in the youth group. And, um, years, like two years ago, I, my brother, I was talking about, uh, this dude, Jason Singleton. I was like, whatever happened to him? He's like, oh, he still lives in so and so. And he went, and you know what, dude? I went, no. He went, he's still got it.
27:03 Josh Clark? Oh yeah. Why would you get rid of it?
27:05 Speaker 03 He still, he still has the car. I went to his Facebook page and it is like the center of his life.
27:10 Josh Clark? I'm sure.
27:10 Speaker 03 It's his baby. I mean, he's had that thing since like 1986 and just it's juiced up and he used to scare the daylights out of me in that thing, but it was also exhilarating, you know, to be riding with him. And he, you know, like 200 feet of drag he would lay.
27:26 Josh Clark? Sure.
27:27 Speaker 03 Like power braking and he would get like four sets of tires a year.
27:30 Josh Clark? He'd be in the passenger seat going, save me, Jesus.
27:36 Speaker 03 Yeah, I was very scared because I was, you know, I didn't flirt with the wild side back then.
27:41 Josh Clark? No. The Oldsmobile 442 is as close as you got, huh?
27:44 Speaker 03 Yep. It was exhilarating.
27:46 Josh Clark? And then, uh, so that was 1995. This Treasure Hunt thing kind of went. It didn't go exactly as planned. Mattel was like, "Oh, we could make even more money if we put these into wider release." Yeah. So the original 10,000 releases were redone again and again and again. So Treasure Hunt kind of became commonplace. Sure. But it was a good idea and it tapped into this whole idea of collecting. Like Mattel was like, "We know you're out there and we're going to design these just for you." Yeah. And we'll talk more about collectors. But just to kind of button up the history of Hot Wheels, it all came full circle in 1996 when Mattel bought Tyco and hence Hot Wheels bought Matchbox.
28:30 Josh Clark? So they're all owned by Mattel at this point? Yes. All right, we'll get to the design and collecting right after this.
28:47 Speaker 03 This stress check, AKA friendly reminder that your hobbies matter, is brought to you by State Farm because you deserve to lose yourself in the stuff that brings you joy. Here's mine: painting my tabletop battle miniatures. Yeah, seriously. After a long day, I grab a brush, pop in some music, and just get into it. And there's no wrong way to do it. It helps me clear my head, slow down, and just breathe. But it works. Big stress, mini warriors, total reset. No pressure, just paint, creativity, and a little reminder of what makes me happy. Some people bake, some people garden. Me, I paint warriors with interesting tech. And guess what? It works. You don't have to be good at your hobby, you just have to enjoy it.
29:32 Speaker 03 So carve out that time, tune out the noise, and do something that's just for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
29:40 Speaker 06 I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. I spoke with Dr. Laura Jayhai of Cleveland Clinic about how advanced computing is helping shorten the path from medical discovery to treatment. The moment.
29:53 Speaker 05 That there is a compound that someone in a lab thinks it would be effective to treat a certain disease. It takes about 10 to 13 years from that moment to when that drug is on a shelf for a patient. A big part of that gap could be computationally solved. Better simulation of compounds, designing drug trials that are more efficient, that would finish faster. That was the motivation to bring computational tools and technology closer to biomedical researchers.
30:27 Speaker 06 Learn more about how Cleveland Clinic and IBM are using AI and quantum computing to revolutionize biomedical research at ibm.com/smarttalks.
30:47 Speaker 03 So, back then, if you wanted to do a smaller version of a larger car and scale it down, you didn't have computer-aided design and stuff. Sometimes you might have had a blueprint, which helped, but sometimes you just had to get out there in the parking lot with the tape measure.
31:06 Josh Clark? Yeah.
31:07 Speaker 03 And just take some measurements and then, you know, be good at math.
31:11 Josh Clark? Right.
31:12 Speaker 03 Basically.
31:13 Josh Clark? And like, like we said, Harry Bradley, who's the daddy of the Hot Wheels Designs, who's the guy who did the first 16, he was a GM designer originally. And his footsteps followed Howard Rees, and then after that Larry Wood, and they, those are some of like the legendary Hot Wheels designers.
31:31 Speaker 03 That's the Mount Rushmore of Hot Wheels?
31:32 Josh Clark? Pretty much, yeah. And, yeah, they would just literally go out and measure these things. And that was one way that Hot Wheels were born. Another way was that, and this definitely differentiates Hot Wheels from Matchbox, is that there are Hot Wheels that only exist in the Hot Wheels world.
31:52 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:53 Josh Clark? They, they are called the fantasy cars. Like, they're just the designer's imagination come to life.
32:00 Speaker 03 Right. Whereas Matchbox only, I believe, has red trucks.
32:06 Josh Clark? Exactly.
32:06 Speaker 03 Well, they only have cars that are based on real cars, right?
32:09 Josh Clark? Right. Hot Wheels has a whole fantasy line.
32:12 Speaker 03 It's interesting that they're owned by the same company still and they just have kept that distinction.
32:17 Josh Clark? Yeah.
32:17 Speaker 03 You know? I guess some people are Matchbox Kids and some kids are Hot Wheels Kids. I had both, I think. I had a bread truck.
32:27 Josh Clark? Is that why you keep going to the bread truck, Will?
32:29 Speaker 03 No, I didn't have a bread truck, but I do remember having a couple of like weird utility type vehicles.
32:34 Josh Clark? Uh huh.
32:34 Speaker 03 Uh, that I don't remember, they were probably gifts or stocking stuffers or something. I don't think I like sought it out.
32:41 Josh Clark? I was always into Tonka trucks. I thought Tonka was great. They were obviously much bigger, but those were like construction vehicles, like dump trucks and stuff like that. And still today, um, that Volvo dump truck, the giant one.
32:54 Speaker 03 Yeah.
32:54 Josh Clark? Um, with the huge wheels, I think is one of the coolest vehicles ever created.
32:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
32:58 Josh Clark? I think I had one of those when I was a kid.
33:00 Speaker 03 I didn't have a lot of Tonka stuff. Um, one of my favorite Hot Wheels though was the Little Red Express truck.
33:07 Josh Clark? I don't remember that.
33:08 Speaker 03 If you saw it, you might, it might ring a bell. It was basically, uh, can't remember what kind of truck it was. I think it was a Dodge. But it was just a cool red step side pickup truck and it had the two, uh, the two vertical mufflers on each side that went up above the truck.
33:24 Josh Clark? I think I know what you're talking about, yeah.
33:26 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's really cool. And if you go to the, um, the Peterson Automotive Museum in LA.
33:31 Josh Clark? Oh, yeah.
33:32 Speaker 03 They have a really cool exhibit there that I haven't been to in person, but I was looking at it online. Permanent exhibit where they have the real life versions of the Hot Wheel cars. And they have a Little Red Express truck, a full size one. Yeah, and I saw it and I was like, whoa.
33:49 Josh Clark? Did you just die from nostalgia?
33:51 Speaker 03 Uh, might have teared up a little bit at the desk. Um, but they have, you know, the, the gussied up Corvettes with the big chrome engines coming out of the hood and.
34:01 Josh Clark? Do they have the 442?
34:03 Speaker 03 Uh, I don't know if they have the 442, but I'm.
34:05 Josh Clark? They will when your friend dies. But it's in his will.
34:09 Speaker 03 It'll go straight to the museum.
34:10 Josh Clark? Yeah.
34:11 Speaker 03 Uh, I'm gonna go to this thing though at some point. I don't know on this next LA trip or not, but, um, it's right there near the La Brea Tar Pits, I think.
34:18 Josh Clark? Oh, yeah.
34:19 Speaker 03 So I want to go check it out.
34:20 Josh Clark? Been there.
34:21 Speaker 03 Yeah.
34:21 Josh Clark? It's neat.
34:22 Speaker 03 It is neat. But back to the design. These days, you're not gonna need a tape measure and stuff like that. You're gonna Photoshop designs and you're gonna even get a 3D printer to maybe do your prototype.
34:35 Josh Clark? That had to have helped them tremendously.
34:37 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
34:38 Josh Clark? Because, you know, with the, if you're designing real-life cars and you have a 3D printer, that's pretty handy. But with Hot Wheels, like, you can print out pretty much exactly what it's gonna look like.
34:47 Speaker 03 Sure.
34:47 Josh Clark? And once they have the, um, the, uh, prototype done, they'll make a, they'll make a mold out of it and then inject it with molten metal under tremendous pressure.
34:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
34:58 Josh Clark? And that's why it's called die cast. You create a die that you cast all of the ensuing ones from.
35:05 Speaker 03 Yeah, and I think they're made with less metal than they used to be. Um, but they, they still have metal components, right?
35:12 Josh Clark? Oh, yeah.
35:12 Speaker 03 I haven't seen a new one in a while.
35:14 Josh Clark? I haven't either, but I'm almost positive they do. And apparently, they're still about, like, a dollar.
35:19 Speaker 03 Oh, really?
35:20 Josh Clark? Yeah, I was on the Hot Wheels collector's site today and, like, they kept making reference to about a dollar. So, so just what's called the mainline.
35:27 Speaker 03 Yeah.
35:27 Josh Clark? The ones that they make en masse.
35:29 Speaker 03 The Citation.
35:30 Josh Clark? Exactly. Um, I'll bet if you got your hands on that 1983 Citation, it'd be worth a few bucks.
35:36 Speaker 03 You're right.
35:36 Josh Clark? Um, but they kept referring to the, the mainline stuff as about a dollar.
35:40 Speaker 03 Well, they just kept making their manufacturing cheaper and cheaper, so they've maintained that cost, I guess.
35:45 Josh Clark? Yeah.
35:45 Speaker 03 Uh, so as far as collecting goes, uh, the most valuable, and that is not, um, this crazy one made out of diamonds for the 40th anniversary, uh, which we'll talk about in a minute, but the most valuable regular Hot Wheel is the, uh, the 68 Beach Bomb, which was a VW bus in hot pink that had, um, real surfboards sticking out of the back of it.
36:11 Josh Clark? Yeah, originally, um, they only released, I think, 25 of them like that. There were a couple of problems. It was difficult to manufacture them with the surfboards sticking out of the back, even though it was more realistic.
36:22 Speaker 03 Sure.
36:23 Josh Clark? And it also, um, was terrible on, like, a loop-de-loop track.
36:27 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:27 Josh Clark? Cause I guess the surfboards would either weigh them down or it would get stuck.
36:30 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:31 Josh Clark? So they, they only made just a few of these things. The the beach bomb that was the highest selling um the Hot Wheels ever was a pink one. They made even fewer of those because apparently a lot of boys were like, I'm not playing with some pink van, even if it does have cool surfboards sticking out the back. So the thing sold for like, I think seventy something, seventy five thousand dollars in two thousand.
36:55 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:56 Josh Clark? And it has since sold again in two thousand and eleven, I saw in like LA Magazine for like a hundred and twenty five thousand.
37:04 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's a lot of money for a tiny little car.
37:06 Josh Clark? Yeah, it is. And that's the highest one ever. Apparently, um, by a long shot, too.
37:10 Speaker 03 Yeah, um, I mean, I've seen others that were worth like, uh, ten grand and stuff. Like, I think one of those four forty two originals is like ten grand.
37:20 Josh Clark? Yeah, I guess like nineteen seventy mongoose or Cobra are worth about ten grand these days. Um, and a lot of them, just like with any collector's item, um, you'll see if there was just a few of them made, obviously, they're going to be worth a lot more. Um, if there is something that where they adjusted the design, like, for example, the, uh, Python was originally called the Cheetah.
37:44 Speaker 03 Yeah.
37:44 Josh Clark? And then they found out that a real life executive with real life lawyers at GM owned the name Cheetah.
37:50 Speaker 03 Yeah.
37:51 Josh Clark? Because apparently GM executives just own names for cars that could potentially be used.
37:56 Speaker 03 Like every fast animal name.
37:57 Josh Clark? Right, exactly. Uh, so they changed it to the the Python, but there they that was after they'd started manufacturing the Cheetah. So there's some out there that say Cheetah.
38:06 Speaker 03 Yeah.
38:07 Josh Clark? Uh, stamped on the bottom. And if you have one of those, it's worth ten grand.
38:11 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's funny to think about. It's the same with Star Wars. Like, sometimes the the mistake ones are the ones that are super valuable because like there was some recall, but like, oh, but you want that one because the, uh, Boba Fett's rocket really shot out before kids started choking on them.
38:26 Josh Clark? Right, or kissing on fire.
38:28 Speaker 03 Yeah, and that's the one you want.
38:29 Josh Clark? Yeah.
38:30 Speaker 03 But like you said, it's all about scarcity and supply and demand.
38:32 Josh Clark? Dude, this whole thing has reminded me of, um, a really great gallery I put together about hilarious knockoff toys.
38:40 Speaker 03 Oh, that's a good one.
38:41 Josh Clark? Yeah, go to stuffyoshouldknow.com and look that up. It's pretty awesome. There's some really strange interpretations of beloved toys, including Star Wars toys, that people who make counterfeit toys come up with to try to skirt trademark law maybe or something, or else they just fully don't understand the toy and what its allure is, so they just make it in this weird interpretation. It's pretty hilarious stuff.
39:07 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's a good one. We'll post that again.
39:09 Josh Clark? Okay.
39:10 Speaker 03 And then I did mention the diamond studded one. I always think these things are just ridiculous, but um, but like to take any like the diamond studded bra is worth, you know,
39:23 Josh Clark? Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
39:24 Speaker 03 A million bucks. I just always think it's kind of dumb. But they did make a 40th anniversary in addition in 19, I'm sorry, in 2008, with 2,700 little diamonds and rubies for taillights and black diamonds for the tires and all that stuff, 18 karat white gold body. But um, it's worth 140, or it costs $140,000 to put together. But I'm sure, you know.
39:49 Josh Clark? It's gaudy. It's a gaudy Hot Wheels.
39:51 Speaker 03 Yeah.
39:51 Josh Clark? The car's cool. It looks like Mad Max's car.
39:54 Speaker 03 Oh, you got, is that a picture of it?
39:55 Josh Clark? Yeah.
39:56 Speaker 03 I don't think I saw that.
39:57 Josh Clark? Can you identify that car?
40:00 Speaker 03 Uh, what is that? It looks familiar.
40:02 Josh Clark? It does look familiar to me too.
40:03 Speaker 03 It looks sort of like a DeLorean, but I don't think it is.
40:06 Josh Clark? I don't think so either.
40:07 Speaker 03 No. Man, that new Mad Max looks good though.
40:10 Josh Clark? Oh, they're remaking Mad Max?
40:12 Speaker 03 Well, there's a, a new reboot, I guess is what they call it these days.
40:16 Josh Clark? Cool. Who's in it?
40:18 Speaker 03 Um, what's his face that played, uh, Bane? Um, who's that guy? Tom, uh, Tom what's his face?
40:25 Josh Clark? Huddleston?
40:26 Speaker 03 No, not Tom Huddleston. But, uh, it looks, it's the same director.
40:31 Josh Clark? Tom Hardy?
40:32 Speaker 03 Yeah, Tom Hardy. But it's the same director from all the Mad Max series, so it's.
40:36 Josh Clark? Oh, really?
40:37 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
40:37 Josh Clark? Wow.
40:38 Speaker 03 And it just looks, it's the whole, it's supposed to be just like one long intense chase battle.
40:44 Josh Clark? Yeah. Sounds a lot like a Mad Max movie.
40:47 Speaker 03 Yep, that's what you want.
40:48 Josh Clark? Have you ever seen Vanishing Point?
40:51 Speaker 03 I think so. What is that?
40:53 Josh Clark? It was like, uh, man, I can't remember the car, but the car was basically the star. It was one long car chase from like, I think, um, Colorado to California.
41:04 Speaker 03 Yeah, I remember that.
41:05 Josh Clark? That's a good one. From the seventies?
41:06 Speaker 03 Yeah, Two Lane Blacktop, too.
41:08 Josh Clark? Challenger?
41:08 Speaker 03 That's another classic car movie.
41:10 Josh Clark? The car.
41:10 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:11 Josh Clark? I haven't seen that one.
41:13 Speaker 03 Yeah, that's a good one. That one weirdly had, uh, James Taylor in it.
41:18 Speaker 03 When he was young and like, on drugs and cool.
41:21 Josh Clark? Were they apologizing to France?
41:23 Speaker 03 Nah, I don't know what the deal was.
41:24 Josh Clark? Did you hear about that?
41:25 Speaker 03 No.
41:26 Josh Clark? So that whole Charlie Hebdo, um, like solidarity march? The US sent like,
41:32 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:32 Josh Clark? I think the assistant deputy in charge of the USDA or something like that.
41:36 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:37 Josh Clark? Um, so to apologize, John Kerry had, um, James Taylor go to France to perform, "You've Got a Friend"
41:44 Speaker 03 Shut up.
41:45 Josh Clark? For the French government.
41:48 Speaker 03 Ah.
41:49 Josh Clark? Yeah. Just talk about making me- I know, isn't it?
41:53 Speaker 03 Send Guns N' Roses or something, at least, like, well, not, send Guns N' Roses from 1988.
42:00 Josh Clark? I, I would go for any-
42:01 Speaker 03 That would be a good gift.
42:02 Josh Clark? Guns N' Roses, man.
42:02 Speaker 03 Ooh.
42:03 Josh Clark? Uh, one more thing about collecting. If you wanted to be the coolest collector of Hot Wheels on the planet, you would have to build a time machine and go back to 1987 to my hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
42:18 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
42:19 Josh Clark? Which is where the first ever Hot Wheels convention, collector's convention, was held. I really wish I would've gone to that. Cause I was there at the time.
42:29 Speaker 03 What year was it?
42:30 Josh Clark? Eighty-seven.
42:31 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah?
42:31 Josh Clark? Yeah.
42:32 Speaker 03 I can't believe we sent James Taylor. I'm still just like,
42:34 Josh Clark? Yeah.
42:35 Speaker 03 I can't focus on anything.
42:37 Josh Clark? Well, if you wanna know more about James Taylor, or Hot Wheels, or just about anything there is in the universe, you can type it into the search bar at HowStuffWorks.com. And, uh, since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail.
42:50 Speaker 03 I'm gonna call this "minimum wage argument," not argument, proposal. Alright. "Listen to how homelessness works" from quite a few years ago, and you guys commented that part of the problem was that low minimum wage in comparison to the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment, you'd have to work something like 87 hours per week to afford it, with the implication we need to raise minimum wage. After hearing this, a clear solution occurred to me. I think disagreements on raising minimum wage is a result of the simple misunderstanding. On the "raise" side, people believe this wage should be set at a level that would allow someone to raise a few children and live a modest but reasonably comfortable level, or at least a safe level. On the "don't raise" side, people believe minimum wage is just a starting point for
43:35 Speaker 03 working, like for teenagers at their summer job or after school. This side believes workers were never intended to and should not expect to be able to support a family that pays minimum wage. So here's my solution. Since we're a democracy here, let's just decide what it is supposed to accomplish and then set it at the appropriate level to do that. If we decide as a nation that someone should be able to raise a family, rent a two-bedroom apartment while earning a minimum wage, let's just figure out what that would cost and set the wage there, figuring rent, clothing, food, utilities, transportation, etc. Let's say it's 27 grand per year, then set it at that rate. On the other hand, if we as a nation decide that minimum wage is just a starting point
44:18 Speaker 03 and not meant to support a family, it's intended for people with no work history or experience and low to no marketable skills, and we need to set minimum wage at a relatively low level and let the market, the free market, will ultimately determine the wage for entry-level workers. And workers historically have been able to increase compensation by gaining skills and good work history. With this settled, any argument about setting minimum wage at a living wage would be mistaken because we all just decided that people are not meant to live on minimum wage and certainly not meant to support a family. That is from Joe Prohaska in Reno, Nevada.
44:56 Speaker 03 And interesting, I look forward to seeing the rebuttal emails.
45:00 Josh Clark? Yeah, I love that kind of stuff.
45:02 Speaker 03 Yeah.
45:02 Josh Clark? It's a great proposal. I mean, I think that is what it's based on.
45:06 Speaker 03 Sure.
45:07 Josh Clark? But as far as I know, the cost of living calculations are really out of date.
45:11 Speaker 03 Yeah.
45:11 Josh Clark? And take a lot of stuff into account that doesn't really apply any longer.
45:15 Speaker 03 Plus, regardless of what you think it should or should not be, the fact is, adults with two kids are still going to be working these jobs. It's not just going to be teenagers.
45:24 Josh Clark? Right.
45:24 Speaker 03 Looking to advance.
45:25 Josh Clark? But it would be nice to put that issue to bed, to say like, this is what we're trying to achieve, or this is not what we're trying to achieve.
45:32 Speaker 03 Right.
45:33 Josh Clark? At the very least, to get everybody talking.
45:35 Speaker 03 Yeah, because should some teenager at his first job make like 14 bucks an hour?
45:39 Josh Clark? I don't know.
45:39 Speaker 03 I don't know if that's sending the right message either.
45:42 Josh Clark? I don't know.
45:44 Speaker 03 I don't know.
45:45 Josh Clark? We'll leave it up to you guys, our dear listeners.
45:48 Speaker 03 When I started working, it was like three bucks an hour or something. It was ridiculously low.
45:51 Josh Clark? That is ridiculously low.
45:53 Speaker 03 Yeah.
45:53 Josh Clark? If you want to let us know how you feel about Joe's proposal, was it Joe?
46:01 Speaker 03 I believe it was Joe.
46:02 Josh Clark? Reno Joe?
46:03 Speaker 03 Reno Joe.
46:04 Josh Clark? You can tweet to us at @SYSKpodcast. You can post it on facebook.com/stuffyoushouldknow. You can put it in an email at [email protected] . And just for kicks, you can hang around our home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com.
46:25 Speaker 04 For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com.
46:35 Speaker 03 Hey friends, just want to let you know our friends at Squarespace have partnered with the dude, Jeff Bridges, in a really cool thing called www.dreamingwithjeff.com. And this is something Jeff Bridges actually came up with. It's a project where he has his friends in various locations around LA with these cool relaxing sounds and guided meditations and stories designed to lull you asleep. It's really neat. And he's also the face of No Kid Hungry, which is a great charity group you should look into. So check out www.dreamingwithjeff.com and see what. The dude in Squarespace has going on.
47:07 Josh Clark? Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an off-road ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's longest-lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures, and style in between. And they're built on a reputation for quality and reliability, which is why Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.
47:39 Speaker 05 She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.
47:52 Speaker 03 Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair.
48:35 Speaker 03 This is an advertisement for Zolair, paid for by Genentech and Novartis.
48:38 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Previous SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work Next SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: What Makes a Must-Have Christmas Toy? Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated